Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on upcoming court of appeal ruling on asylum in the UK

The British court of appeal is set to make a decision on the 'asylum hotels' around the country. 

Asylum seekers have been staying in hotels at the taxpayers expense, and the government is expected to make an announcement later today.

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey says that tension around these hotels is rising and protests outside these hotels are getting 'pretty fraught.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With us. Now is Gevin Gray, UK correspondent. Hello, Gevin, Hi,
So we're going to get a decision today on whither
the court was right about the asylum hotel.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah. Yeah, expecting that in about six hours time. And
this is going to be really really crucial for the
government and for how asylum seekers are treated here in
the UK now at the moment while they are awaiting
a decision on their asylum application. Some, in fact more
than thirty thousand are currently being put up in hotels

(00:30):
at taxpayers expense. I don't mean rubbishy old hotels. I
mean some quite nice hotels as well. It is done
at the cost daily cost of millions of pounds and
plenty of people in this thing country. I think that
is so wrong. So in Epping to the east of London,
there has been a series of protests outside one of
these hotels because a fourteen year old girl claims she

(00:53):
was sexually assaulted by an Ethiopian man living at that
hotel as an asylum seeker and he'd only just arrived
in the country. And the protests got well pretty heated.
There wasn't a lot of violence, but it was pretty
fraught at times, and the local council managed to win
in court an injunction saying it's got to be shut

(01:14):
down to asylum seekerts because it was against planning regulations
and also could cause violence outside. They won, but the
government has gone to appeal saying well, hang on a minute,
we are currently using couple of hundred hotels like this.
If we have to turf them all out, all asylum
seekers have to leave the hotels, then this is going
to put our policies into massive problems. And so that

(01:36):
is what the Court of Appeal are going to decide
on today. And I have to say there are lots
of people waiting with bated breath to see what that
judgment will be.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, I can imagine. So now that strike on the
Eused delegation, the Eused delegation officer in Kiev, was that
done deliberately or was it an accident?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, we don't know. Actually there are places around on
that particular development in Kiev which were being targeted, so
it's possible that it might have been a drone that
had gone wrong in an attack. Equally, of course, the
EU and the UK been absolutely on the nail when

(02:17):
it comes to imposing some pretty tough sanctions. So the
idea that both offices were hit and hit badly is
still up for grabs as to why that was and
was it a mistake Either way, both sides are just
saying this is just now a sham the idea that
Russia wants peace, that this is mocking the peace efforts
that have been put there. Interestingly, absolutely no word that

(02:40):
I've seen from a one mister Donald J. Trump about
this attack and his response to it, but certainly the
Russian ambassador to the UK in London, Andre Kellen, He's
been summoned into the Foreign Office at which I dare
say there was a bit of a dressing down as
best they could, and indeed a charged affair in Brussels

(03:01):
summoned in response to talk to EU officials as well.
So yeah, I think this is going to be something
that the EU and the UK are going to use
now to a nineteenth round of sanctions against Russia. The
question is is any of it working? Do they care?

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Kevin? Are you going to go for any of these
Guinness World Records?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well, Heather, I'll go halves with you for some of these,
I think. Now, So what have we got? Well, it
is the seventiethe of us through the Guinness World Record titles.
It was begun on the twenty seventh of August nineteen
fifty five. So this week Everest decided that it would
launch a couple of ideas for people who might still
want to get into the record books. They are recommending

(03:44):
the most whoopee cushions sat on in one minute, the
fastest time to blow a stamp ten meters, the most
high fives in thirty seconds. That sounds relatively painless that
you and I could do, heather, the fastest four hundred
meters sackrace. I like that, But in another one, that
is for the more adventurous, The fastest time to ascend
the height of Everest by bicycle. Now I don't think

(04:07):
I mean going up Everest in a bicycle. I think
it's the height of Everest.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Anyway.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
These things are all ones you can try. But in
our midst we already have a Guinness World Record holder
amongst your team. No doubt she will reveal herself shortly. Oh, yes,
what was it for a game?

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I didn't know this, can you remember, Devin?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
It's yes, it is for singing. We're all in a
yellow submarine while in a swimming pool. I think so weird.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I mean I recall that I wish we held. Thank you, Gevin,
appreciate it. Gavin Gray, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
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